1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sports boot, especially a ski boot, including a shell base overlaid by an upper having a front portion and a rear portion that are made in one or a plurality of pieces, the rear portion of the upper being at least partially pivotal in relation to the shell base and including a device for locking and unlocking with respect to the latter, active in a rear-to-front direction of pivoting of the rear portion of the upper. Such a device is constituted in a known fashion by an abutment zone provided on the rear portion of the upper, on the one hand, and by an oscillating lever forming a rocker, journalled on an axle, arranged on the rear portion of the shell base, perpendicular to its median vertical plane and capable of cooperating in latching with the abutment, under the action of a control member accessible from outside the boot, acting against a return spring of this lever, on the other hand.
2. Description of Background and Relevant Information
In a boot of the aforementioned type, the locking position of the lever corresponds to an initial reference advance position, from which the upper is adapted to move angularly along a predetermined amplitude in relation to the shell base.
To this end, locking and unlocking mechanisms of the aforementioned type are known from the documents EP 0 940 096 and EP 0 664 969, in which an oscillating lever forming a rocker is controlled directly by a control member that is in fact constituted, in both cases, by the rear binding of an element to be fitted, such as a ski.
This has the major disadvantage of placing these levers in the lower portion of the shell base, so as to control them at right angles with their pivoting axes.
However, this rear zone of the boot, intended for the binding, is standardized and must theoretically remain free, in order to comply with the ISO 5355 Standard.
Contradictorily, the presence of the lever implies creating a protuberance in this zone for its housing and journal, which, in order to comply with this standard, involves forward shifting of the entire remainder of the boot, and consequently of the foot during skiing, which distorts the proprioception of the foot, hindering the front-to-rear balancing of the skier.
Of course, another solution could include considerably increasing the thickness of the wall of the boot in his zone for housing the lever, but this would weigh down the boot and would not prevent the forward shifting of the foot to comply with the aforementioned standard.
An object of the present invention is to remedy the aforementioned various disadvantages of the prior art. To his end, the invention relates to a sports boot, especially a ski boot, including a shell base overlaid by an upper having a front portion and a rear portion that are made in one or more pieces, the rear portion of the upper being at least partially pivotal in relation to the shell base and including a device for locking and unlocking with respect to the latter, which is active in a rear-to-front direction of pivoting of the rear portion of the upper, and which is constituted by an abutment zone provided on the rear portion of the upper, on the one hand, and by an oscillating lever forming a rocker, journalled on an axle, arranged on the rear portion of the shell base, perpendicular to its median vertical plane and capable of cooperating in locking with the abutment, under the action of a control member accessible from outside the boot, acting against a return spring of the lever, on the other hand, the locking position of the latter corresponding to an initial reference advance position, from which the upper is adapted to move angularly along a predetermined amplitude in relation to the shell base, wherein the control member of the oscillating lever forms a rocker, adapted to cooperate in locking with the abutment, which is located in the rear fitting zone of the boot so as to be biased by the rear binding of an element to be fitted, and is controllably connected to the lever, located at a distance, in a zone separate from the fitting zone, by means of a cable pulling on the lever during the fitting of the boot in order to cause its rotation toward the abutment of the upper, and consequently its automatic locking, or inversely to cause its unlocking by releasing the control member during the removal of the boot, consequently causing the return of the cable by means of at least one elastic return member.
A significant advantage procured by the invention lies in that the cable can pass in any area of the shell base, in particular toward its lateral surfaces, therefore outside the standardized zone. But this can also remain in the median plane of the rear zone of the shell base, because the cable, whose space requirement is minimal, can be incorporated therein, and also because the rocking lever is arranged in a zone that is remote from the standardized zone.
Another advantage lies in that the entire device can be very easily designed to be impervious, unlike the known device of the prior art which can cause water to rise between the upper and the shell.
The present invention also relates to the characteristics which will become apparent from the description that follows, and which must be considered separately or according to all of their technical combinations,